By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-908171.mp3
Dallas, TX – A bi-partisan bill working its way through the California legislature would prevent recent text book changes made in Texas from reaching students in California. KERA's Bill Zeeble has more.
Because Texas is so big, its school books approved by the State Board of Education, are often distributed to other states too.
San Francisco Senator Leland Yee calls changes to the Social Studies curriculum, approved by the Texas Board, revisionist, extreme, false and harmful to students.
Yee: To suggest that the slave trade didn't really exist or that there was not racial underpinnings to the internment of Japanese Americans is something I just don't agree with.
Yee says if Texas changes stayed in Texas, he would have no problem. But California is not updating its own books, meaning the newest Texas texts would reach California. He says that's the problem. His bill would force publishers of the Texas books to change them again before reaching California children.
Those who follow the publishing industry say many years could pass before the new Texas Social Studies books are published. And by then, standards might change yet again. Publishers also say they can easily make electronic changes demanded by different states, but others aren't so sure.
A majority of Texas Board of Education members praised their curriculum changes as necessary and healthy for education.